Smile Upon Me
by manual84
Summary: One shot, speculation on 5x17 and 5x18 casting sides. They are uncomfortable. Not with each other – never with each other – but with this. This whole unspoken agreement; like a plan, an attempt to prove something. But prove something to who?


**Spoilers: Through 5x13 "The Dentist in the Ditch" with loose speculation based on spoilers for upcoming episodes 5x17 "The Predator in the Pool" and 5x18 "The Rocker in the Rinse Cycle"**

**Author's Note: I don't always love fic based on speculation, especially when reading it years after the fact, but after reading the latest casting sides and theorizing some, I was inspired to write what I believe may be a potential resolution to a few things rumored to take place later this season. Title comes from the Passion Pit song of the same name.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _Bones_. Etc.**

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"So."

"So."

There is a heavy pause. They are uncomfortable. Not with each other – never with each other – but with this. This whole unspoken agreement; like a plan, an attempt to _prove something_. But prove something to who? To Sweets? To themselves?

He clears his throat but does not continue.

She picks at the label on her beer bottle, can't help but notice a small bead of condensation trace down the outside of the glass. _It is warm in his apartment_ she thinks as she sets the beer back on the coffee table.

He thinks _it is warm in his apartment._ Or maybe it's just him. But he throws a glance at her and notices she looks warm too. So it's them. They are both warm.

"Booth –" She begins just as he says,

"Bones, I –"

And then they smile at each other. Because really? It is warm in here and this is somewhat uncomfortable.

"I… I'm not seeing Andrew anymore." She blurts out.

He masks his surprise but cannot hide the shadow of a smile that has begun to form on his lips.

"Oh?" He tries for casual.

"Yes. Well, after consideration, I determined it would not be fruitful to waste my time seeing someone wherein the relationship lacked any real… potential. I mean there wasn't that… that… _spark_ I think you call it?" She looks at him for approval.

He nods, but as what she has just said dawns on him he allows his smile to grow as he responds.

"No potential, huh? You mean… no future? You didn't see a future with him?"

She knows what he is implying here – things she once claimed she never believed in, things that were always _anthropological inevitabilities_ and _chemicals_ and things that lacked tangible proof.

She can't help but grin as she nods her head in agreement.

"That is correct, Booth."

She expects him to respond immediately, to goad her into a discussion in which he will point out her drastically new way of seeing things, but he sits silently next to her on his sofa. When he does begin to speak, it is his turn to surprise her.

"Yeah, I understand Bones. I'm not seeing Catherine anymore. I mean she was nice – "

" – and pleasing to look at." Brennan provides helpfully, wishing she had a better filter because _why, oh why_, would she feel the need to interject with that?

But he knows her and this doesn't phase him, because he's thinking of other more important things.

"Yeah, she's pretty. But… she's just… she's not… yeah, no potential, as you said."

The fall back into silence, the uncomfortable feeling has subsided, and they both appreciate the apartment's warm; the warmth in being there, sitting on his sofa. Together. He is about to offer her another beer, when she says something quietly, something he surely mistakes for something else, and so he asks her to repeat herself.

She looks up at him, stares right at him.

"Sweets was right. His book. At least… his conclusion."

He feels as though he cannot breathe, because if she's insinuating what he thinks she's insinuating, well then… maybe his apartment is too warm, after all.

Because he doesn't respond, and sits there with an indiscernible look on his face, she continues. She rationalizes that she's already put _it_ out there. And yes, she thinks she knows what _it_ is, but doesn't want to name _it_ yet… not… yet.

"Booth, do you remember that toast I gave a few months ago? When we were out with Jared and Padme?"

"Yeah, Bones." As if he could forget.

"Well then, I, you may recall that I said that I had no tangible proof but I now believe in your—"

He cuts her off because he's had time to process this, not the time he needs, but enough to save her from struggling through this, to save her from being the only brave one, and to save them from each other.

"I'm in love with you Bones. You are right; Sweets was right. At least for me, and if you're saying he was right for you too then maybe that kid really is a damn good psychologist because I am in love with you and whatever these past few weeks of seeing other people was, whatever that was to prove to him, or to us, that – "

And now it is her turn to cut him off, because she knows that he needs help now, and that's what they do – they're partners. They finish each others' thoughts. They help each other. They love each other.

"I love you too Booth. I am in love with you Booth."

He beams at her, and she beams back and they sit grinning at each other like fools unable to speak or form complete thoughts but it doesn't even matter. It doesn't matter at all because they love each other. _They are in love with each other._

It doesn't matter who moves first because the next thing that happens is that she is pressed against him, his fingers are tangled in her hair, and her delicate hands gently travel over the planes of his face as they continue to stare at each other in awe.

Lips meet sweetly and slowly and tongues battle for dominance and passion builds and kisses are interrupted with pauses for breath and smiles and elation and the reality check that this is real, that this is happening, that_ they are in love with each other,_ and that a great burden has been lifted from their shoulders because they've given in and it's okay and _they are in love with each other_ and are in this together, right where they've been from the beginning, but finally they are on the same page, they are where they are supposed to be and when they wake up in each other's arms, in his bed sometime later, and they still don't have the words to articulate it all, they cannot help but simply smile at each other because really, _they are in love with each other_.

They are in love.

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**Thanks for reading, and please review. And feel free to let me know if you also think things could end up this way...**


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